Kitscoty, Alberta

Top: Kits’ Coty House in England.  Retrieved from Ancient Ways Website.

Bottom: Kitscoty Golf Course.  Retrieved from www.tee-off.ca

The village of Kitscoty is a small friendly community located in the great wheat belt of the Vermilion Valley.  Kitscoty is nestled in the vast Alberta open prairies with rolling hills and wide spread forests. According to the village office, Kitscoty has developed to what it is today because of excellent residents, great hospitality and uplifting spirit.

If wanting a place full of sports facilities and organizations then Kitscoty is the place! The village slogan is “Biggest Little Sports Centre in Alberta” illustrating Kitscoty residents dedication and involvement in local sporting activities and organizations. 

Kitscoty is located in the County of Vermilion River, near the Saskatchewan border.  It is in commuting distance from Lloydminster, just 22 km east. Kitscoty is located on Highway 16, the TransCanada Highway and Highway 897 the proposed link to Cold Lake.  As such, the community has great accessibility and has the opportunity for developing a large scale tourism plan to attract visitors who are traveling on the TransCanada.

As a village dedicated to community recreation, Kitscoty offers residents 10 ball diamonds, 2 gymnasiums, 2 tennis courts, 2 soccer fields, and a ice rink and curling rink. The community has also opened the Regional Park that includes a 9-hole golf course, ball diamond, and camping facilities. 

Kitscoty is named after the world famous ancient relic of Kit’s Coty House located in Kent, England. In 1905, the first settlers came to the district and later that year T.H Currie opened the first store from a tent.  Later Currie built the villages first structure, a store and Post Office.  By 1911, Kitscoty was well established, without the assistance of the railway. Businesses consisted of Sheppard’s Blacksmith, Gilmour Hotel, Jenkin’s Store, Drew & McPhee Real Estate, a bank, butcher shop, barber shop, insurance agent, 2 livery and feed stables, lumber yard, pool room, tailor.  Since community cohesion and recreation were vital to the community, by 1912 the community had an outdoor ice rink, and held annual Kitscoty Sports in May. In 1913, the Canadian Northern Railway laid tracks through Kitscoty, allowing the village greater accessibility. 

Throughout the 20’s commerce boomed in this small community and many businesses were established. Including Burns’ Kitscoty Creamery, Imperial Oil, physician A.M. Crawford, meat market, a hat shop, furniture store, 2 garages, machinery shop, gristmill, and 5 operational grain elevators.

With the 1930’s brought much hardship to the community.  Not only was Kitscoty hit by the depression, but in 1936 the community suffered a harsh hail storm that demolished the windows of local homes and businesses, and in 1938 was hit with large snow storms.

The village began to decrease in the amount of businesses in the 1970’s and by the 1980’s the community had lost many of the earlier agricultural business institutions.  Businesses in the 80’s consisted of Allin’s Discount Store, Con General Store, CIBC, Treasury Branch, Wheatfield Inn, Graham Automotive, T. Simpson’s Ceramics, Imperial Oil, United Grain Growers, Alberta Wheat Pool, café, Laundromat, beauty salon, hi-way service, and auctioneer.

As of 2001, the population of Kitscoty was 670, an increase of 4.03% from 1996.  Kitscoty has a booming “younger” population, with majority of residents under the age of 45.  The largest proportions of residents are 35-44 (20%), followed by 5-14 (17.8%), and 25-34 (13.3%). In rural communities of today, it is uncommon to have such a huge percentage of younger residents and this is a huge advantage for Kitscoty and an opportunity to further develop the community through youth.

Kitscoty is a prime agricultural district with heavy farming and ranching activity. Today, the main economic base continues to be agriculture, mainly in the form of mixed farming.  The area is also blessed with high amounts of oil resources that have aided the local economy.  The area has strong oil activity that has created many local jobs, and has assisted in the development of local oil based businesses. Based on the local labour force, majority of residents are employed in business and community services (34.2%), mining (17.6%), and construction (12.3%).

The community business sector is always growing with more to offer local residents. Kitscoty provides all the daily necessities ranging from commercial, professional to service and tourism.  Local businesses provide excellent family resuarants, accommodations, grocers, and much more. Kitscoty is fortunate to have two modernized schools, educating children from kindergarten to grade twelve. As well as a newly constructed health facility, Minburn-Vermilion Health Unit.

As of August 2003, the local and surrounding businesses of Kitscoty:

Resources

Business data sources include: Alberta Business-to-Business Directory, Albertafirst.com, WorldWeb Travel Guide (Discover Alberta), Google Search, Albertadirectory.com, Albertaswfirst.com, Crowsnest-highway.ca, and Superpages Telephone Directory